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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Federal prosecutors will begin their case against two men accused of involvement in a 2020 grand plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer following the selection of a jury Tuesday for a 2nd trial of the suspects.
A previous jury failed to agree on convictions for the two men last spring, according to The Associated Press.
On Wednesday
opening statements are planned in federal court in Grand Rapids, in western Michigan,
The Associated Press reported.
“It’s not
disqualifying to have views one way or the other,” U.S. District Judge Robert
Jonker told the jury pool, according to The Associated Press. “It’s
disqualifying if the views become more important than what the law or the
evidence is.”
What charges are Adam Fox and Barry Croft facing in plot to kidnap Whitmer?
Adam Fox and
Barry Croft Jr. are facing charges after agreeing to kidnap Whitmer, a
Democrat, as part of a plot to shock the country into chaos in the final days
of the 2020 presidential election, according to The Associated Press. The two
men are charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.
39-year-old
Fox lived in the Grand Rapids area while Croft, 46, is from Bear, Delaware.
They communicated regularly with other antigovernmental extremists, angered with
Whitmer and various public officials over COVID-19 restrictions, The Associated
Press reported.
The jury is
expected to hear secretly recorded conversations and see text messages and
social media posts favoring violence from prosecutors. Defense attorneys will
attack the credibility of undercover FBI agents and informants who fooled the group
into thinking they were allies.
Evidence at
the first trial found that the plot to kidnap Whitmer followed training in
Wisconsin and Michigan and two trips to scout her second home in northern
Michigan, according to The Associated Press.